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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Fans and media doubt Jeremy Lin because he is Asian

Jeremy Lin has shocked the sports world in six straight games and the media is still questioning his legitimacy.

They are both jealous and ignorant about Lin and his skills. There is also probably a tad of racism involved as well.

I am sure many fans and members of the sports media wish that what is happening to Lin was happening with Sacramento Kings' rookie Jimmer Freddette instead.

Fredette is white and Lin is Asian. I still remember when all the sports analysts and members of the media were going gaga over "The Jimmer" when he was doing good playing for the BYU Cougars last year. They wanted him to be the next Larry Bird and the next "Great White Hope."

If Lin was white or Black, no one would call him a fluke and question how legit he is.

The reason Lin is not a one hit wonder is because he has all the qualities you need to be a solid point guard in the NBA.

Lin has the quickness and speed to blow by defenders as well as enough strength to absorb contact and still make a shot in the lane. He has great court vision and a high basketball IQ.

Another key is that Lin is fearless. He is not scared of the big moments or of getting hit and fouled hard when he drives to the hoop. He is not a timid player and is willing to take the contact in the lane.

When I hear former players like Magic Johnson say that he is for real, it validates what I already knew about Mr.Lin. The guy can flat out ball.

Last night, I heard ESPN NBA analyst Tom Penn say that Lin is not Chinese. I then went on Twitter and saw CNBC jouranlist Darren Rovell tweet this -

"What remains to be seen is how China will embrace Lin given their tension with the Taiwanese."

That was another ignorant statement from a member of the media. When I told Rovell he was ignorant, he tweeted back to me saying that he talked to people in Beijing about this. I couldn't help but laugh at his reply tweet to me.

ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose even chimed in last night about Lin and said he needs to see Lin do what he's doing for 60 games and not six.

People just can't believe an Asian man can do so well. They don't want to believe it and can't fathom how a Chinese player who had to listen to racist slurs throughout his college days at Harvard dominate the NBA.

I sense some jealousy from ex college and NBA players on ESPN such as Tim Legler, Bruce Bowen, and Doug Gottlieb. They probably feel they could be doing what Lin is doing now if they got more playing time and more minutes.

They are wondering how this Asian guy can be so good? They believe it can't be real and it has to be a fluke. I don't understand how the media can compare him to Rudy from Notre Dame or Tim Tebow.

Rudy was a walk-on for Notre Dame while Tebow was known by a lot of college football fans even before he was recruited by Florida due to his high school football exploits.

The reason that Lin didn't get recruited heavily was because he is Asian. The only Asians that get recruited and offered NCAA scholarships are the ones from overseas that are over 6'8 tall.

Recruiters and college coaches just don't think that an Asian American can play Division 1 basketball.

In George Dohrmann's book about AAU basketball, an AAU coach says "I don't do Asians" meaning he doesn't have Asians on his team. His reason for this is because Asians just don't grow to be as tall as white and Black players.

At Harvard, Lin had a lot of racist slurs directed at him from opposing teams' fans who told him to go back to China and chanted "Won Ton Soup" and "Open your eyes."

I hear everyone say that "no one" saw this coming. I live in the Bay Area and I have heard of Lin since his senior year playing high school ball in Palo Alto. I realized he could play and do well in the NBA when I saw him play well against Boston College and UConn in his senior year.

Many fans in San Francisco have seen him compete and dunk at the San Francisco Pro Am League a few summers ago as well. Lin may be an unknown to a lot of people in America but he wasn't an unknown in the Bay Area.

I saw a highlight of Lin making a game-winning 3 pointer against William and Mary as well. The guy was a leader and a good passer who was unafraid to attack the rim.

I started to tell people that Lin would play in the NBA even though he probably would not get drafted. Everyone laughed when I told them this and most had never heard of Lin until I mentioned him.

Even a lot of Asian guys that I played with in pick-up basketball games at the gym did not believe me and many of them were saying that they were going to be the first Asian in the NBA.

When Lin signed as a free agent with the Warriors, I knew he was making a huge mistake since Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry get all the playing time there.

Lin had another problem when the Warriors signed Acie Law to compete with him for backup minutes when Ellis and Curry would need a short breather. Keith Smart, the coach last season, insisted on playing Law over Lin much to the dismay of the Warriors' fans.

It was a blessing in disguise when the Warriors cut Lin. He signed with the Houston Rockets after that but he was going to get cut after training camp ended since the Rockets had three other guards who were all on guaranteed contracts.

Luckily for Lin, the New York Knicks signed him as a free agent and New York is the best market for him since there are a lot of Asians living in New York, and the Knicks' fans have been searching for a hero after many dismal seasons.

Linsanity has arrived and it's here to stay weather people like it or not.

6 comments:

There is possible tension with the Chinese because Lin is TAIWANESE. His father even insisted to a New York Times reporter that Jeremy is Taiwanese. If you don't understand the conflict within Taiwan about this topic you shouldn't pound on the CNBC guy for accurately reporting on it.

As a California Okie living in San Francisco it is truly a stretch to even get what they're talking about. Is the rest of America or the sports world that backward? There's a huge tension between the Nationalists and the Communists in San Francisco but wasn't Lin born in America?

I don't see anything wrong with what Barry Melrose said. I won't be convinced about Lin's ability to be an NBA star until he plays more than a handful of games. After a 60-game stretch, or even 50 games, we'll see how he does after teams make defensive adjustments, and get to know his habits and instincts. How many times have you watched a baseball game where the pitcher gets through the lineup the first time, only to be roughed up because batters made the necessary adjustments. None of that has anything to do with the race of a pitcher or Lin. That's just a fact. You don't prove yourself after six or seven games. You prove yourself after subjecting yourself to a marathon season and seeing how you measure up.

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